Tutorial: Elf House Ornament

This Elf House Ornament was such a fun project!!  What was really nice is that a worker at Joann's helped me come up with the idea!!

Since it's getting so close to Christmas, this is going to be the last Christmas-related tutorial I publish this year. *sob*  However, I have some GREAT year-round tutorials lined up for you!!

Let's get started!!

GATHER SUPPLIES

$1 Wooden birdhouse 

Acrylic craft paints

Gesso (optional)

Epsom salt

Chipboard or cardboard

Tacky glue

White glue

Paintbrushes

Craft knife (X-acto Knife)

Step 1: PREP WOOD PIECES

Birdhouse

Break off the perch from the front of the birdhouse.

Doors & Windows

Using your craft knife, cut out 2 doors and 1 window, making sure they're the appropriate size for the house and that they cover the hole or destruction the perch made.

Note: I added tiny doorknobs to my doors too!! 

Step 2: PAINT HOUSE

Paint the birdhouse the following colors:

Main house=Green

Roof=Brown w/ White "snow"

Hole=Gold outline

Base=White

Doors=Brown w/ Gold doorknobs

Window=Blue w/Brown Frame

Step 3: ADD DOORS & WINDOWS

Front                                      Back

Using your tacky glue, attach the doors and windows to your house.

Step 3: ADD "SNOW"

Gesso

Add a thick layer or multiple layers of gesso to raise the "snow" off the roof a bit.

Note: If you don't have gesso, it's okay, you can skip this step!!

Epsom Salt

Working in small sections, add a layer of white glue to the white parts of the house (roof sections and base).

Sprinkle Epsom salt on the glue as you would glitter or flocking.

You can gently push the salt into the glue if need be.

Note: Adding the Epsom salt is really important because it really does look like snow!!

Step 5: ADD DECORATIONS 

Note: I added a hammer and a rocking horse to really show that this was an Elf house and not just a small green house!!  You can add whatever "elf" decorations you prefer!

Print your images of your decorations in the appropriate size.

Use your preferred transfer technique to transfer the image to your chipboard or cardboard (you could always just sketch your items, like I did).

Cut them out and paint them with your acrylic craft paints.

Once dry, glue them to the house.

FINISHED!!

Thanks for reading!! Until next time...

Crafty Weekend - Sept. 2011

My best friend, Brook, is a huge inspiration for my creativity.  I go to her regularly with craft-related questions, such as “What kind of project can I use this for?!”  And she always has an answer!

We try to spend 4-6 craft-filled days together each month and we call them our “Crafty Weekends”.  We’re always sure to take lots of pictures of what we make and of course I will be sharing them with you!

Since we’re hoping to get-together this upcoming weekend, I thought I’d post some photos of our projects from September’s “Crafty Weekend”.

Felt Hedgehog Appliqués

  

Brook's                                        Lisa's

These little guys are simply adorable!!  Brook had found the tutorial online and we just made our own patterns.  You can see that we each did ours a little differently.

Shrinky-Dink Buttons

  

                           Brook's                                    Lisa's
Yes, these are buttons made from children's Shrinky-Dink plastic!!  This project was a blast!!  I’ll definitely be posting a tutorial on how to make them in the future!

That big one in Brook’s photo is actually a pendant made from a plastic take-out container that was heated in the oven. How cool!!

Mini-Mushroom Pincushions

Brook's                                        Lisa's

These pincushions are only about 2” tall and have a loop on them so you could attach it to a necklace if need-be.  I’m hoping to have Brook guest post this tutorial sometime soon!

Hand-bound Books

  

                           Brook's                                    Lisa's

I’d never bound my book before and I’m ever so grateful to Brook for teaching me how to do it!!  I’ll be making MANY more books in the future!!

Altered Birdhouses

  

Brook's                                  Lisa's

This was by far my favorite project of the weekend!!  There are so many different ways you could “alter” these little $1 wooden birdhouses and I can’t wait to make more of them!  You can really see the variety of designs you can come up with just by looking at the two ways we decorated ours!

Hopefully Brook and I will be able to get together this weekend and then there will me more fun photos to show you next week!!

Thanks for reading!!  Until next time…